Driving mechanism of needle looms



Dec. 8, 1959 B. OBYRNE 2,915,804

DRIVING MECHANISM OF NEEDLE LOOMS Filed Feb. 12, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 lA/VE/VTM- 1959 B. OBYRNE 2,915,804

DRIVING MECHANISM OF NEEDLE LOOMS Filed Feb. 12, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 //VVEN7M tram '64): AMALV United States Patent DRIVING MECHANISM OF NEEDLE LOOMS Brendan OByrne, Batley, England, assignor to William Bywater Limited, Leeds, England Application February 12, 1957, Serial No. 639,653

Claims. (Cl. 28-4) This invention relates to the driving mechanism of needle looms, and concerns the driving of the ratchet or other form of intermittent take-up motion which controls the rate of draw-through of the material being treated in the loom.

The chief object of the present invention is to provide means which will permit adjustment of this rate of drawthrough to be made whilst the loom is in motion, thereby saving loss in production time.

Accordingly the driving mechanism for the take-up motion includes differential gearing arranged to drive a crank device connected to the take-up motion, and means for adjusting said differential drive whilst the loom is in motion so as to cause relative angular movement between two rotatable members forming the driving portion of said crank device and thereby to alter the effective throw of the crank device and so vary the rate of the drawthrough. Preferably bevel gearing is used and this is in two sets each having a stationary gear and a driven gear which are inter-connected by a driving bevel pinion mounted in a carrier member arranged to be driven by power means, the driven gears being arranged to rotate normally at the same speed as one another to drive the crank device but being capable of being given at will temporary differential speeds so as to produce an alteration inthe effective throw of the crank device. These temporary' differential speeds may be produced by altering the positions relative to one another of the two stationary gears.

The crank device includes two rotatable members which are drivably connected respectively to said two sets of gears, one such member having pivotally mounted on it eccentrically of its axis of rotation the crank rod for actuating the take-up motion and being slidable relative to the other member, so as to vary the crank throw, by producing a temporary difference in the relative rotary speeds of the two members.

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood and readily carried into effect the same will now be more fully described with reference to and by the aid of the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 illustrates such portions of a needle loom as is necessary to show the position therein of the mechanism according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is an end View of differential gearing mechanism and a crank device which is driven thereby and which in turn drives a ratchet type of intermittent take-up motion;

Figure 3 is a longitudinal section taken mainly on the line III-J11 in Figure 2 and showing part of the said crank device in section.

Referring to these drawings, which illustrate merely by way of example a preferred form of the invention, Figure 1 shows the general lay-out of a needle loom having a main frame 1 with an endless conveyor 2 to carry the material into the machine, and a ratchet wheel 3 forming part of a take-up motion which controls the rate of draw-through of the material. This ratchet is 2,915,804 Patented Dec. 8, 1959 ice ing gearing indicated generally at 7 which is supported in bearings in brackets such as 8 on the frame 1, such latter gearing being driven directly from an electric-motor (not shown) or by any other suitable means.

Referring now to Figures 2 and 3, a crank pin 11 is screwed eccentrically into the face of a crank plate 12 and has pivoted thereon by a bush 13 and retaining washer 14 held by locknuts 11a a connecting rod 15 for coupling to the ratchet wheel 3 of the take-up motion. This crank plate 12 can move laterally in a T-slot plate 16 by engagement of tongues 12a in slots 16a, but it is normally restrained from doing so by engagement with a slide block 17 secured by a screwed stud 18 on to the face of a carrier plate 19, the latter being secured to a shaft 20 which extends through the differential gear assembly and is retained in position by locknuts 20a and a thrust washer 2%. The slide block 17 is rotatable on the stud 18 and slidable in a slot 12b in the crank plate 12.

The T-slot plate 16 is secured to a support plate 21 which has a spigot 21a rotatable about the shaft 20. Around this spigot is freely mounted the boss 22a of a side plate 22 forming part of the gear case, such boss being in turn journalled in a bearing on a pedestal support 35 mounted on the top of the frame 1,

Inner and outer driven bevel gears 26 and 25 are secured respectively on the shaft 20 and on the spigot 21a of the support plate, and these are engaged by two bevel pinions 32 and 33 freely mounted independently of one another on a spindle 34 supported in an annular cover 23 which, with the side plate 22 and a spur gear 24 to both of which it is secured, constitutes the gear casing. Two further bevel gears 27 and 29 mesh with the pinions 32 and 33, the outer one 27 having its boss 27a held rigid in a housing 28 of the pedestal support 35 whilst the inner one 29 has its spigot 29a rotatably mounted about the shaft 20 but normally held stationary by having secured on it a worm wheel 30 meshing with a worm 31 secured on an adjusting spindle 36 which is supported in a bracket 37 secured to the housing 28 and is provided with a hand wheel 38 for turning it.

The spur gear 24 is rotatably supported upon the boss 27a of the outer bevel gear 27 and is driven from a second spur gear 39 which has half as many teeth as the first gear 24 and which is secured on the main driving shaft 40 of the loom or other suitable driven revolving member. The two inner bevel gears 26 and 29 have the same number of teeth as one another, as also have the two outer bevel gears 25 and 27.

The operation of the mechanism is as follows. The gear case is driven at half the rpm. of the needle loom shaft 40. The two pinions 32, 33 rotate with the case and as they are in mesh with the stationary gears 27, 29 they cause the driven gears 25, 26 to revolve at twice the speed of the gear case, thus driving the whole crank device as a single unit at the same speed as the needle loom shaft. Rotation of the hand wheel 38 moves gear 29 relative to gear 27 and this sets up a differential action which is transmitted through the pinions 32, 33 to the driven gears 25, 26 causing the latter to rotate at different r.p.m. during movement of the hand wheel. The positive or negative result of this action causes relative angular movement between the plates 16 and 19 which moves slide block 17 in its slide 12b and so causes the crank plate 12 to slide in the T-slot plate 16, thus moving the crank pin 11 away from or towards the center of the plate 16. This increases or decreases the stroke of the connecting rod 15 and thereby the number of ratchet teeth taken up at each stroke, with a consequent increase or decrease in the intermittent rate of drawthrough of the material in the loom.

The two bevel pinions 32 and 33 are balanced in the gear case by a diametrically opposed balance weight 41 on a spindle 42.

I claim:

1. In a mechanism for driving the intermittent take-up means which controls the rate of draw-through of the material being treated in a needle loom, the combination of a crank device, two rotatable members forming the driving portion of said crank device and capable of being angularly adjusted relative to one another, connecting'means to transmit the reciprocating motion of said crank device to said take-up means, power means for driving said crank device, differential gearing to transmit the drive from said power means to said crank device, and control means for adjusting said differential gearing whilst the loom is in motion so as to cause relative angular movement between said two rotatable members and thereby to alter the effective throw of the crank device and so thereby vary the rate of draw-through.

2. In a mechanism for driving the intermittent take-up means which controls the rate of draw-through of the material being treated in a needle loom, the combination of a crank device, two rotatable members forming the driving portion of said crank device and capable of being angularly adjusted relative to one another, connecting means to transmit the reciprocatory motion of said crank device to said take-up means, power means for driving said crank device, differential gearing to transmit the drive from said power means to said crank device, said differential gearing including a rotary annular cover drivably connected to said power means and two sets of bevel gears each set having a normally stationary gear and a driven gear which are inter-connected by a driving bevel pinion mounted in and bodily rotatable with said annular cover, a driving connection between each said driven gear and the corresponding one of said two rotatable members of the crank device, and control means for causing said driven gears normally to be rotated at the same speed as one another but capable of being adjusted at will whilst the loom is in motion so as to cause said gears to be rotated at temporary differential speeds and thereby cause such a relative angular movement between said two rotatable members as to produce an alteration in the effective throw of the crank device sufficient to vary the rate of draw-through.

3. In a mechanism for driving the intermittent takeup means which controls the rate of draw-through of the material to be treated in a needle loom, the combination as called for in claim 2 wherein one of the said two rotatable members forming the driving portion of the crank device has pivotally mounted on said member eccentricallyof the axis of rotation of said members a connecting rod for actuating the take-up means and is mounted so as to be angularly adjustable relative to the other of said rotatable members by the operation of said control means so as to move said connecting rod pivot effective crank throw.

4. In a mechanism for driving the intermittent takeup means which controls the rate of draw-through of the material to be treated in a needle loom, the combination as called for in claim 3 wherein said bevel gears, said rotary annular cover and said two rotatable members of the crank device are all mounted concentrically about a shaft which connects one of said two rotatable members to its driving bevel gear.

5. In a mechanism for driving the intermittent takeup means which controls the rate of draw-through of the material to be treated in a needle loom, the combination of a central shaft, bearing supports for said shaft, differential gearing mounted concentrically about said shaft, a gear case enclosing said gearing and including an annular cover and gear wheel secured together and mounted in bearings so as to be rotatable about said shaft, a second gear wheel engaging with and having half the number of teethof said first gear wheel and drivably connected to power driving means, said differential gearing including an inner and an outer set of bevel gears each set having a normally stationary gear and a driven gear which have the same number of teeth and are interconnected by a driving bevel pinion freely mounted for rotation independently of the pinion of the other set on a spindle supported by said annular cover, the stationary gear of said' inner set having a boss which is held against rotation at all times and the stationary gear of said inner set having a spigot on which is secured a worm wheel meshing with a Worm which is secured on a spindle with hand wheel and constitutes control means, a support plate having a spigot secured to the driven gear of said inner set, a carrier plate secured on said shaft on which the driven gear of said inner set is secured, a T-slot plate securedto said support plate and having a straight T -s1ot formed across it, all-three of said plates being concentric with'said shaft, a crank plate slidably mounted in said T-slot and connected to said carrier plate eccentrically of said shaft by a slide block which is'rotatably mounted on a studsecured to said carrier plate andwhich is slidable in a slot in said crank plate, a crank pin secured eccentrically'in -said' crank plate, a connecting rod pivoted at one end on said pin and coupled at its other end to ratchet mechanism of the said take-up means, said control means being arranged for adjusting at will the relative positions of said two normally stationary gears and therethrough of said T-slot plate and said carrier plate so as to alter the eccentricity of the said crank pin'sufiiciently to vary the drawthrough of material.

References (Jited in the file of this patent UNITED 'STATES PATENTS 1,833,046 Burdett Nov-24,1931 2,070,147 Thompson Feb. 9,1937 2,319,485 Alabrune May 18, 1943 2,367,555 Arney Jan. 16, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS 729,098- Great Britain May 4, 1955 

